Swedish folks in Poland! (I want to apply for university and live in Poland)

I've seen some swedes on this forum living in Poland. I'm very curious about that because I would really like to move to Poland. I'm polish myself but have been living in Sweden for almost my entire life. You have good jobs? How come you moved? Is that something you would recommend?

I love Poland but I'm also afraid of being forced to live under bad economic circumstances.

I want to apply for higher education (univ.) and I thought about Poland but from what I've heard my swedish choice would be a much safer card. Is it difficult to find a good job with a swedish diploma in Poland?

I love Poland but I'm also afraid of being forced to live under bad economic circumstances.

Sure, you'll earn less in Poland. But you'll also get the chance to be part of something new and exciting - something is happening in Poland, unlike dull stable Western European countries. Depends if you want to build something or simply to live in something that was built for you, really.

I want to apply for higher education (univ.) and I thought about Poland but from what I've heard my swedish choice would be a much safer card. Is it difficult to find a good job with a swedish diploma in Poland?

I'd say your real problem will be not understanding the Polish way of doing things. Foreign diplomas are good, but work experience is so, so, so important in Poland - and if you want to work in Poland as a Pole, they'll be expecting you to have similar experiences to the ones who never left.

But really, I'd say you'd have to be absolutely insane to choose a Polish degree over a Swedish one.

First thing is you'll have to learn Polish, either through your local Polish consulate or, ideally, at university. Malmo is fortunate in having perhaps the reputedly best university in Southern Sweden for the study of linguistics, among other things. I'm sure, Sweden being the burgeoning multi-culti society it has become, that Malmo, a city with diverse student populations, will offer such a language course for people like yourself of student age-:) Let's just say I'd be rather surprised if such were not the case.

I lived for a short while in Goteborg and know Swedish fluently. While one finds, as a foreigner anyway, that many Swedes will know or at least claim to know English well, the same cannot be said across the board for the average Pole! Therefore, it's better to know more than a bit if the local lingo before going over. A mere word to the wiseLOL

Speaking here purely on my own behalf, Poland has historically had among the best, not to mention, oldest, instititutions of higher learning in Europe, the University of Cracow, to name but one example!

Malmo and Stockholm both indeed have renowned universities with equally renowned faculty, but to suggest therefore that a Polish degree is in any way inferior to a Swedish degree is as absurd as it is unfounded, in my view.

Malmo and Stockholm both indeed have renowned universities with equally renowned faculty, but to suggest therefore that a Polish degree is in any way inferior to a Swedish degree is as absurd as it is unfounded, in my view.

The problem is perception - anyone in Western Europe is going to look at a Polish diploma and think "hmm..". Polish education is absolutely unnoteworthy - and has the systematic problem of vast amounts of higher education lecturers churning out a vast amount of rubbish for the sake of "points".

On the whole, Poland is a poor place to go for education if you have the chance to get it in Western Europe.

It's about my future.. What would I benefit from? Swedish diploma or polish diploma?

Swedish one. Polish education is riddled with cheating, poor teaching and a system that exists solely to provide more and more jobs for the boys.

Sounds to me, Delphamine, you're "preceptions" are plain riddled with stereotypes!! This a common mis (-pre-)conception of a perception that is NOT reality. I'm sure that Swedes 'fuska' ("cheat" in Swedish) as much as Poles, only the misperception is that Swedes are smart and Poles are dumb.

Let's just look at history a moment, shall we? Once upon a time, Swedish immigrants to America were labled "dumb Swedes"! So much for prejudices-:)

I have never studied in Poland (only in Sweden), but from what I've been told cheating seems far more common in Poland. It's really hard to get away with cheating at Swedish universities and the punishments are harsh so few are willing to risk it.

I also have a feeling that in Poland university is more about stuffing yourself with knowledge whereas in Sweden it's more about solving problems (of course this depends a lot on what you study etc), but I don't really have anything to back that up (just a feeling based on what people have told me).

The problem is that stereotypes matter a hell of a lot when it comes to someone's future. Look at Poland - we Brits know that Oxford/Cambridge entry depends on a lot more than just grades, especially if your father is a member of the old boys club. But Poles? They don't know this - they just know that the degree is from a world class university. They've got no idea that someone who blagged his way into Cambridge and left with a 3rd class degree is really just a waster - they've got a paper!

Likewise, someone from Sweden is going to see that no Polish university is ranked higher than 350 in the world - and they've going to deduce from this that Polish education sucks.

I have never studied in Poland (only in Sweden), but from what I've been told cheating seems far more common in Poland. It's really hard to get away with cheating at Swedish universities and the punishments are harsh so few are willing to risk it.

Pretty much bang on. Cheating in Poland is part of the system - and unfortunately, people are then surprised that people cheat and lie in business.

The Polish system isn't all bad - the problem is that there's a vast amount of people who owe their position more to nepotism than to talent - and these same people make dreadful lecturers.

This is, after all, the system where a good businessman isn't welcome to teach, but some dreadful PhD is. I leave it to you to decide what value a PhD in Business might have.

Well then, isn't it about time that one try to dismantle those stereotypes so that they don't matter such a "hell of a lot", rather than merely perpetuating the same sterotypes year after year??

Perhaps the differene between an outside attending your Oxford or our Harvard etc. is that the latter must really be a knowledgeable person who can ride on dear old dad's reputation as an Oxford Don, a Harvard frat boy or a Yalie skull-and-bonesman-:)

Speaking here purely on my own behalf, Poland has historically had among the best, not to mention, oldest, instititutions of higher learning in Europe, the University of Cracow, to name but one example!

"Historically" being the key word here. It was very long time ago, now our universities unfortunately aren't anywhere near the best ones in Europe.

I've studied both in Poland and in the UK and I can see where the problem lies - widespread cheating (no one dared even try in the UK!), lots of useless subjects, very old and incoherent teaching programs, professors being the almighty ones, too much theory and not enough practice.

Maybe in the UK they don't get such wide knowledge as we do here, but they are far far better in their one, chosen field.

In many ways, things aren't that great in the UK these days, either. We simply have too many universities these days, churning out people with useless degrees, or degrees which will be laughed at by future employers. This is mostly happening for political reasons, beyond the scope of this reply, lol. I studied law at a fairly well-known university; we were told early into the course to "...count yourselves lucky that you didn't get in at ********* University, because you would have NO chance of getting into the law if you did your degree there - you would be laughed at". Sadly, the lecturer also added "...fortunately we have a better reputation here. But if you think that you will be able to compete with graduates from the top universities, especially those who 'know the right people', then forget it".

Re: the "cheating" described above. This is something which has been mentioned by many Polish-educated people I have spoken to over the years. Additionally, I used to date someone for quite some time, who allegedly "graduated" in Poland and worked in the same profession as I do. Due to the utterly ridiculous questions she once asked me, I was convinced that (a) she cheated in her exams or (b) she had paid someone for a false registration document. There's no way that someone with her supposed education/experience would have asked those questions.

Anyone considering cheating in UK universities these days needs their head seeing to, especially as electronic anti-plagiarism methods are being used. The consequences just aren't worth the risk of being caught (not that I could ever consider cheating even if they still checked assignments by hand lol, but you know what I mean ;) ).